Developmental Psychology: Cognitive Development Flashcards
Jean Piaget
Created Cognitive Development
Cognitive Development
The theory that cognitive growth is a continuous process that exists in 4 qualitative processes
Schemata (Schema)
The way in which people organize new and old information
Adaptation
An important concept in Piaget’s cognitive development. It comes in 2 forms
2 forms of Adaptation
Assimilation & Accommodation
Assimilation
The process of interpreting new information based on existing schemata
Accommodation
The process of adapting existing schemata to fit the new information.
Sensorimotor Stage
The 1st stage in Piaget’s cognitive development which typically from birth to 2 years old. During this stage, an baby will learn primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions and object permanence)
Primary Circular Reaction
The repeated motion where the baby is reacting to their body (ei. sucking thumb when hungry)
Secondary Circular Reaction
The repeated motion where the baby is reacting to their environment (ei. being surprised when someone disappears with peek-a-boo)
Object Permanence
The ability to make mental representations of objects when they are out of sight.
Important Concepts in Sensorimotor Stage
- Primary Circular Reaction
- Secondary Circular Reaction
- Object Permanence
Preoperational Stage
The 2nd stage in Piaget’s Cognitive Development which typically occurs between 2 and 7 years old. They can that object exist even when you can’t see them but struggle to understand a different perspective
Centration
The tendency to be able to focus on only one aspect if a phenomenon
Egocentrism
The perspective that you are the center and struggle to understand another person’s perspective.
Conservation
The idea that physical properties of matter do not change because the appearance changes. (beaker experiment)
Concrete Operational Stage
The 3rd stage in Piaget’s cognitive development which occurs between 7 and 11 years. They can understand another person’s perspective but struggle with abstract thought.
Formal Operational Stage
The 4th stage in Piaget’s cognitive development which occurs through adolescence. They begin to “think like scientist” by creating hypothesis and making deductions.
Piaget’s theory on thought and language
The development of thought directs that development of language.
Criticism on Piaget’s Cognitive Development.
- Piaget’s research is based on observation vs empirical data
- Cultural and environmental factors impact the concrete operational stage
- Abstract thought is not a quantitative skill and is interpreted differently across cultures.
Lev Vygotsky
Believed that a child’s internalization of various aspects of their culture drives their own cognitive development.
Zone of Proximal Development
The distance between independent problem solving skills and adult guided problem solving skills. A tool used to best determine an individual child’s cognitive development
